Five Centuries of English Verse, Impressions, Vol. 2 of 2: Wordsworth to Tennyson (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Five Centuries of English Verse, Impressions, Vol. 2 of 2: Wordsworth to Tennyson; Revised Edition of "the Poets: Chaucer to Tennyson Impressions"I cannot but recognize that the mass of his verse has ceased to please. That is the common fate of poetry in bulk. It must be conceded that the rule applies especi ally here. Ordinary readers even with a taste for poetry are satisfied with a fraction of his. As it happens, the few favourites are generally the fruit of earlier years. But comparisons of age may well be of interest for students of literature; they do not affect the question of absolute merit. When I am choosing pieces to make my own, and love, I do not consider dates. Similarly I do not concern myself with Wordsworth's philosophy, unless so far as it was the motive for a poem, and colours it. As it happened, the philosophy was of a kind to bear a very intimate relation to the poetry. The scheme of it was the pre-existence Of spirit in an angelic state,'and its new birth into a new order of Nature prepared for it by the Divine Architect. The fabric, with its appointed centre and lord, was designed to be admirably fair and happy. 'in all its constituents, from man to beast, to the flowers of the field, mountain and valley, winds and waters, it was meant to develop by the law of its being into beauty, mutually grateful loving-kind ness, sympathy, symmetry, and harmony.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.